For those outside the loop, the term fantasy wrestling might conjure images of elaborate video games, tabletop dice rolls, or perhaps some offshoot of Dungeons & Dragons with suplexes. But for the dedicated community immersed in it, fantasy wrestling—or eWrestling as it’s commonly called—is a rich, creative subculture combining roleplaying, writing, storytelling, and performance art into a unique digital theater. It’s where the squared circle becomes a blank page, and instead of steel chairs and top-rope maneuvers, the weapons of choice are words, wit, and narrative brilliance.
This column will explore what fantasy wrestling truly is, where it came from, how it has evolved through the decades, and why, against all odds, it’s still alive and evolving in the digital era.
The Origins: From Backyard Notebooks to Bulletin Boards
The roots of fantasy wrestling predate the internet. In the 1980s and early 1990s, before forums, Discord, or even AOL chat rooms, wrestling fans began simulating matches and rivalries with pen and paper. These early fantasy leagues—sometimes referred to as “mail wrestling federations”—mirrored the rise of real-world fantasy sports leagues. Participants would mail or fax character sheets and promos to a fedhead (federation head), who would determine the outcome of matches, often writing them out in fanfic-style narratives. This primitive but passionate system was built on creativity, imagination, and a shared love for the world of professional wrestling.
Then came the early days of the internet—bulletin board systems (BBS) and newsgroups like rec.sport.pro-wrestling.fantasy. These platforms allowed the concept to flourish. Without postage delays, fans could submit promos and results more quickly, creating an interactive, serialized drama between players. In the process, eWrestling was born: a fusion of collaborative storytelling and simulated combat, built around original characters or sometimes real-life wrestlers, depending on the league’s theme.
The Golden Age: Angelfire, E-Feds, and the Roleplay Boom
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the explosion of eWrestling as a full-fledged hobby. With the rise of free web hosting services like Angelfire, Geocities, and Tripod, thousands of “eFeds” (electronic federations) were launched. Each had its own website, roster, rules, and aesthetic. Some leagues used real-life wrestlers (so-called “CAWs” or Created-A-Wrestlers) while others required players to invent their own personas entirely.
The two most prominent styles of eWrestling emerged during this time:
1. Roleplay-Based Federations (RP Feds): Players submitted written promos (often called “RPs”) each week or per match. These RPs could range from short, trash-talking promos to epic multi-thousand-word character monologues and vignettes. Winners were decided based on writing quality, storytelling, character consistency, and engagement with ongoing storylines. RP feds became the mainstream of eWrestling.
2. Angle-Based Federations: Instead of direct competition, angle feds worked like a traditional TV writing room. Players collaborated with fedheads and other players to build long-term feuds, betrayals, and heel/face turns. Outcomes were not “won” through RP quality but decided by creative agreement and narrative need.
This golden era was also the age of the “eFed wars”—feds competing for talent, players jumping between leagues, and federations rising or falling based on reputation and writing talent. Iconic federations like EMF, FWF, EWA, UWF, and countless others drew hundreds of players, some forming rivalries that spanned years.
Webrings, banner exchanges, and affiliate links connected federations together. Top writers gained reputations. Championships held meaning. And weekly results, painstakingly written by hand, often mirrored or surpassed the drama of real-life wrestling programming. This was the era where fantasy wrestling became not just a game, but a culture.
The Forum Era: Communities, Collaboration, and Canon
As internet technology matured, so did the tools used by fantasy wrestling communities. The shift from free static websites to forums—powered by systems like InvisionFree, ProBoards, phpBB, and vBulletin—ushered in a new wave of federation design.
Forums allowed for far more interactivity. Characters could post promos, interact in “off-camera” scenes, participate in interviews, and even build relationships in character or as writers. OOC (Out of Character) sections encouraged collaboration, community-building, and debates over storyline direction. Many feds added features like rankings, hall of fame pages, and video-style promos using YouTube or custom-made GFX graphics.
The result was a boom in long-term storytelling. Players no longer just wrote to win—they wrote to build. Feds with strong lore and continuity developed intricate universes. The best were places where characters evolved over months and years, with deep arcs rivaling serialized television dramas.
This era also introduced:
Character Development RP Threads: Writers posted regular updates on their character’s lives, giving depth beyond the ring.
Stable and Faction Systems: Groups of characters, managed by different players, formed alliances and rivalries in ways that mimicked or surpassed the complexity of wrestling factions like the NWO or DX.
Title Histories and Records: Many feds tracked championship reigns and match records with the seriousness of a sports league.
Creative Evolution: The Rise of Multimedia and Hybrid Styles
As broadband internet and digital media tools became more accessible, eWrestling communities embraced multimedia. Forum avatars, wrestler graphics, match cards, and promotional videos all became standard fare in top federations. Some feds even moved to platforms like WordPress or custom-coded sites that emulated WWE.com, complete with storyline recaps, fake interviews, and “press releases.”
Some leagues experimented with match writing formats:
Fully Scripted Matches: Fedheads wrote every match result like a detailed TV show.
Competitive Writing Matches: Two players wrote promos, and the best RP determined the winner.
Segment Submission: Players wrote in-character segments, interviews, or commentary for the show’s structure, allowing for full collaborative control of the product.
Around this time, the hobby began to split further into subgenres, including:
Real Wrestler Feds: Using actual wrestling rosters from WWE, AEW, or NJPW. Players adopted existing personas and tried to match or reimagine their stories
Original Character Feds (OC Feds): More like a shared universe of superheroes or comic book characters, where the eFed became a massive playground of original creations.
Fantasy Booking Sims: Tools like TEW (Total Extreme Wrestling), EWR (Extreme Warfare Revenge), and Fire Pro Wrestling allowed for simulated match booking and outcomes based on character stats and logic.
Some writers even turned their eFed characters into webcomics, podcasts, or novels.
Challenges and Decline: The Social Media Exodus
The mid-to-late 2010s brought challenges. As platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Discord took over online interaction, forum-based communities suffered.
Engagement declined. Players left for real-time RP experiences on Twitter (“Twitter feds” or “efed accounts”) or lost interest altogether.
Some key issues included:
Burnout: Writing long RPs weekly became a grind.
Ghosting: Players disappearing without notice hurt continuity and morale.
Fragmentation: Smaller player bases spread across dozens of feds led to inconsistent engagement.
Still, the most dedicated communities held on. They adapted. Some federations moved to Discord. Others began experimenting with AI tools or collaborative docs to ease the burden of match writing. And where one fed closed, another often opened in its place.
Modern Revival: eWrestling in the Age of AI and Digital Creativity
Fantasy wrestling hasn’t vanished. In fact, the 2020s have brought something of a renaissance. Platforms like Discord and Reddit have enabled fast, flexible federation formats. Google Docs allows for collaborative matchwriting and RP feedback. WordPress templates and CMS platforms make building professional-looking fed sites easier than ever.
And perhaps most significantly, AI is emerging as a new tool in eWrestling. Some federations are experimenting with:
AI-assisted Matchwriting: Fedheads using GPT tools to generate match frameworks or even full writeups.
Promo Enhancement: Writers drafting promos or angles with help from AI prompts or narrative templates.
Worldbuilding: Tools to expand fictional arenas, cities, federations, and backstories.
In many ways, eWrestling is becoming more versatile and user-friendly, opening the door for new players who may lack time but still crave creative expression. The hobby is no longer just for hardcore wordsmiths—it’s for anyone who wants to create a character, tell a story, and live out the dream of the squared circle.
There are also eWrestling communities that mirror larger storytelling movements like interactive fiction, collaborative screenwriting, or immersive roleplay gaming. The lines between genres have blurred, allowing for deeper integration into writing platforms, content creation, and even podcast-style promo battles.
Why It Matters: The Enduring Appeal of Fantasy Wrestling
Fantasy wrestling is more than a hobby—it’s an art form.
It trains writers in dialogue, character voice, pacing, and narrative arc. It offers a collaborative storytelling space not unlike a TV writer’s room or Dungeons & Dragons campaign. And it fosters community. Friendships. Even rivalries that last decades.
It also democratizes wrestling. You don’t need to be 6’4”, 250 lbs, or have a background in athletics. In eWrestling, you are the superstar. Your character can be whoever you imagine—outlandish, realistic, tragic, heroic, comedic, supernatural. There are no creative limits.
In a world where creativity is often monetized, fantasy wrestling remains a rare bastion of free, grassroots storytelling. It exists for the sheer love of the game—and that, perhaps more than anything, is what’s kept it alive.
Conclusion: From Niche to Narrative Legacy
Fantasy wrestling—eWrestling—has endured every technological wave since the 1980s. From typewritten promos in mailboxes to AI-crafted story arcs, it has evolved but never lost its heart: a community of fans who turn their passion for wrestling into living, breathing drama.
Whether you’re a veteran of the Angelfire wars or a rookie looking to cut your first promo, eWrestling offers a canvas to paint your character’s journey, a microphone to speak your truth, and a ring where your words hit harder than steel chairs.
And as long as someone out there believes in the magic of a comeback story, the thrill of a title win, or the poetry of a well-cut promo… fantasy wrestling will live on.
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